Photo credit: Kim Phillips
Age: 53
Stomping ground: Boulder, Colorado
Job: Senior Product Developer at GoLite
Genny Turechek landed a product development position with GoLite, where she turns designers’ dreams into functional gear-and combines her love of sewing with an active outdoor lifestyle. Her project resume ranges from trail running tights to down-filled jackets, and she thrives in her role as a problem solver. Genny stepped away from her sewing machine just long enough to share her story.
What sparked your interest in developing apparel for the outdoor market?
I’ve been interested in sewing since I was a little girl, and as a stay-at-home mom while my children were growing up, I stayed creative by taking in sewing projects. I had an “aha moment” just after redesigning some clothing for an elderly woman with arthritis who was having trouble dressing herself. I went back to school to work in the fashion industry and when we moved to Colorado four years ago I rediscovered the outdoors. This is, after all, a place where one can climb a Fourteener on a whim.
What inspires you about your job at GoLite?
The fact that I’ve been successful at making a career out of something I truly love. There’s nothing better than that. I also love the challenge of diagnosing a fit problem, and working with the factory to really nail a product.
What’s a typical day on the job like for you?
It’s different every day. I’d say my primary responsibility is taking a designer’s two-dimensional sketch and turning it into a functional, three-dimensional product. I wear a lot of different hats, and my work with the designer and the merchandisers is cyclical as we determine if the garment is actually manufacture-able and cost-effective. I call my job “the dream killer” as a joke, because sometimes I have to take a great concept and say, yeah that’s cool, but it’s not going to work in reality.
What do you do to clear your head outside of work?
Hiking, road biking, snowshoeing, gardening, and quilting-I particularly enjoy the artistic aspect of quilting.
What challenges you about your work?
Working in apparel development for the outdoor industry, our products have to really function, beyond a regular shirt or pair of pants. This was new for me coming from traditional fashion. As a four-foot, eleven-inch woman who considers Mt. Evans her Everest, I also have to work hard to understand the full spectrum of what this clothing should really do. I ask a lot of questions, listen to a lot of people, and try as many activities as I can. I took a beginner’s rock climbing course last fall, and after just one day on the wall I realized I needed stretch in the fabric, I needed a gusset in my pants, and I needed longer arms in my shirt.
What is the most surprising thing for you about your career?
The fact that people don’t even realize my job exists. They think that a hoodie goes from the designer, to the factory, to the store, but there is so much more in between. It’s kind of like dinner: It doesn’t just go from boxes on the grocery-store shelves to a meal on your dinner table. In reality, someone has to shop and someone has to cook. Just like someone has to figure out that a shirt’s neck opening is too small, or that a zipper is too short.
Genny also volunteers for the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition, an organization that supports women professionals in the outdoor industry. Learn more at oiwc.org.
